Thinking of Terry Goller

One of the wonderful things about the folk tradition in music is that you learn so much from people you know, from relatives sometimes, but more often -- at least for folks in our generation -- from good friends. For Dave Peyton and me, long before we formed The Flood, one of those oh-so-important friends was Terry Goller, a remarkable singer and guitar player who taught our whole community about folk music. Terry was on several local popular radio shows, was often teaching guitar at music shops and performing at parties and at local folk venues -- quite busy, but he always had time show us a few licks and to tell us the history of the tunes he was playing. Terry died more than 30 years ago, but he's still often on our minds. In fact, one of the songs we're working on these days tracing back directly to Terry. The first time I ever heard Eric Andersen's "Dusty Boxcar Walls," it was being sung by Terry and his buddy Dave Bias in the late 1960s at a coffeehouse near Marshall University where they were both students. Thinking of you, Terry.